Archive
A Link to the Present: OOT Gets an Update
URA HAPPY ZELDA FAN
This is a ray of sunshine on this dreary, overcast, Saturday:
The Toki no Okarina URA Project aims to restore BETA elements to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as well as adding elements of the original URA Zelda to the game, in addition to a little bit of retexturing. Music changes are also a part of the project, and there have even been map ports. Now, there are select locations from Termina which can be found in Hyrule.
Hopefully this works out better than that Mario 64 ‘new’ version from a while back.
h/t: Unseen64
3PM Snapshot: The N64 is Pretty Cool
I’m not gong to actually post this image up here, but I’ll link to it directly because it’s most certainly NSFW.
(Not imagery but language that would make, well, in this day and age, nobody blush, but just in case…)
Deja Vu 64: Mario 64 Meets SMG2?
I don’t suppose anyone recognizes this level from Super Mario Galaxy 2? Perhaps from a previous life?:
Right now I’m fantasizing that Nintendo recreated all of Mario 64 in SMG2 and, well, just be glad you’re not sitting here because the results are definitely not an ESRB-approved E for Everyone.1
UPDATE: Compare and contrast:
1 More like N for Nobody or B for Blindness
New (Old) N64/Sin & Punishment News
Now in English!
In case you missed this the first couple of times around, it’s now been officially (ooh, aah!) translated for you heathen in the West:
Nintendo has published an official translation of its “Iwata Asks” feature about Sin & Punishment 2, in which president Satoru Iwata and men from Treasure discuss how bats*** difficult it was to make anything work on the N64.
“That was because Nintendo 64 drastically changed how things were made up through the Super NES system,” Iwata explained in the piece, reminiscing about his time at HAL Laboratory. “We ran up against how to make the best use of 3D graphics, and the team had quite a hard time.”
This is Treasure *and* Iwata talking so you young ‘uns, unschooled in the geekly arts that drove the N64, should sit up and take notice–the rest of you jaded sods should just kick back and wait for the next story on this very, veeeeeery, slow day.
DIY: Portable N64 and PSOne and PC Engine and…
Ronald McDonald Red isn’t exactly subtle, is it?
As if your very own phaser wasn’t enough cause to reach for a fresh pair of Hanes, now we have a DIY guide to building your own, portable, N64, and it’s actually smaller and far more portable than Ben Heck’s:
He also has portable PC Engines and PSOnes, among others, filling out a resume of reasons why women should never, ever, date him.1 (Luckily, he’s wearing a wedding ring, so some poor lucky girl already saved the rest of you.)
1 In other words, a kindred spirit, *cries*.
Mario 64+ X = 360
Love (will eventually be) requited
In case the above ‘equation’1 is too cryptic, this means Mario 64 on XBOX360:
Current Emulation Status:
Currently we are still running on one CPU core with little to no optimization with everything run minus graphics at around %50 of the N64 speed. I’ve yet to look into dynrec or inline function calling, but when the time comes there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to easily hit 100% speed on emulation.
Translation from the original Geek: it’s a looong ways off, but good to know it’s making some (slight) progress.
1 I never promised this blog would be math free, after all.
In A Just World, It Would Have Been Slippy Instead
Fox McDead: shoulda barrell rolled
h/t: CHI
WideBoy’s Big Brother
Not this kind of WideBoy
No, this isn’t about CHI, this is about the recent eBay auction for a Famicom Wideboy that went for a staggering $1500:
Very Rare Nintendo Wide Boy development System. Allows you to play original Game Boy games on your Twin Famicom System (Japanese NES System that plays both Disk System and regular 60 pin Famicom cartridges). Used by magazine editors to take various screenshots of games in full size screens. These exist in Game Boy large style play kiosk systems from Toys R Us or from defunct video game magazines. This particular one is from a defunct company that used it for screenshots for strategy guides. FREE shipping. Tested and works.
As it turns out, I have a similar device for the N64, though I only have the cartridge interface that you plug a GameBoy game into and then that snaps into a standard N64:
Wikipedia adds:
Developed by Intelligent Systems, the Wide-Boy 64 (CGB/AGB) is a rather obscure series of adapters similar to the Super Game Boy that was able to play Game Boy games; however, it was only released to the developers and the press and was never released to the public. A device similar to the Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player, the Wide-Boy 64 allows video game developers to play Game Boy Color games on the television screen in a similar fashion as the Game Boy Player does with Game Boy Advance games and the Super Game Boy with original Game Boy games. It also allowed the gaming press to capture screen shots more easily. Like the Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player, the game screen itself is surrounded by a template mimicking the appearance of the portable system. It was not a consumer product as only developers and magazines could purchase one from Nintendo at a cost of $1400 USD a piece.
So, there ya go, Nerd, pics!
(And yes, I do need to clean under my nails.)
H/T: Gamesniped via Tiny Cartridge
Star Fox 2: Behind the Graphics
Coulda Been; Almost Was
This colossal article (weighing in at an attention span-crushing 5500+ words), on the still-birth of Star Fox 2, is chock fully of geeky goodness (if a little heavy on ‘serious business’1):
2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the non-release of the highly anticipated sequel to Star Fox. By the middle of 1995, it was apparent that despite favourable reviews at the Winter 1995 CES, Nintendo was hesitant to release Star Fox 2 against the superior looking Saturn and PlayStation. The impending launch of the Nintendo 64 also played a part in its cancellation, with Nintendo wanting a clear break between Super FX 3D and N64 3D. Although Nintendo claimed it would be released in the September 1995 issue of Nintendo Power, it was swept under the rug along with other Super FX games like Comanche and FX Fighter. Through the course of time, alpha and near final beta ROM images were leaked. Despite its cancellation, Star Fox 2 remains a highly revered game for its excellent gameplay and intriguing history…
…From the timing of the statement in Nintendo, it appears that Star Fox 2 was completed in Summer 1995 (the “final” beta that was leaked has a time stamp of June 22, 1995 inside the test mode menu). Although the impending release of the Nintendo 64 factored into the decision to cancel the game, I’m sure the impressive release of of the PlayStation also factored into it. Despite sporting excellent gameplay that outshone most Saturn and PlayStation games released in 1995, the graphics were definitely not impressive in comparison…
…Thanks to the efforts of Aeon Genesis, Star Fox 2 was fully translated to English and the last of the bugs/cheats (i.e. the bug where the Arwing can transform in space levels and Corneria not getting damage when attacked) were fixed. The translation patch came out on October 17, 2004, over two years after the beta was leaked onto the Internet. Even at that point emulators had trouble running the game, though it appears that zsnes 1.40 came out a couple of months later with support. I’ll admit that I never got around to playing the patch until I started the article, which probably is why I never updated this page for years and incorrect information was allowed to perpetuate (many of the pieces of incorrect information on the Wikipedia page for Star Fox 2 appear to have come from the old article). I think the translation is excellent, though admittedly Star Fox 2 is not the most story driven game. The patch gives the game a nice bit of polish to make it look like it would have if it was released…
Worth reading in full, if gaming esoterica is your bag.
H/T: Games That Weren’t (but sorta are anyway)
(Sorta) UPDATE: Video for those that don’t want/care to muck around w/ emulators:
1 Still, you gotta admire something that heavily-referenced in Geekdom–it’s almost like actual…journalism.
